Cardi B Stirs Controversy Tweeting Photo of Hasidic Jews After Battery Charges Dropped
Rapper Cardi B caused an uproar on social media for tweeting — and then deleting — a photo of two Hasidic Jewish men shortly after learning that she would not be charged for an incident that took place during her recent concert.
The Grammy-winning singer threw her microphone into the crowd at her July 29 performance in Las Vegas after someone threw a drink at her on stage, as seen in videos shared on social media. A woman who said she was hit with the microphone filed a police report for battery but the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement on Thursday that due to “insufficient evidence,” no charges will be filed against the rapper, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar.
After police made the announcement, Cardi B tweeted the exact picture that appears for the Wikipedia entry “Jewish religious clothing.” The photo shows two Hasidic men walking in Borough Park, a religious neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, while wearing traditional Hasidic clothing and accessories such as a shtreimel hat, tallit, a long black suit and a belt known as a gartel. Cardi B simply wrote in the photo’s caption “Remember …”
The Twitter post may be related to her 2018 song Bickenheld, which includes the lyrics: “Lawyer is a Jew, he gon’ chew up all the charges.” Cardi B’s legal team that took care of the battery charge in Las Vegas reportedly included multiple Jewish attorneys and “Lawyer is a Jew” was trending on Twitter in the US following the rapper’s tweet.
The Bodak Yellow singer shortly after deleted the photo from her Twitter account and while she may have been trying to applaud her Jewish lawyers with the post, many took offense to the photo. Jewish writer Eve Barlow said the rapper “incited violence against one of America’s most vulnerable visible communities – Orthodox Jewish people, because she believes that we Jews all look the same and have all the power.”
“Appreciate you @iamcardib but tweeting out a vague picture of a visible minority that has been subject to rising hate crimes in NYC to your 31 million followers is just not acceptable,” tweeted Dovid Bashevkin, director of education for the Jewish youth movement NCSY. “When hate is an option don’t leave anyone guessing what you meant … If you want to show gratitude to your Jewish legal counsel then clearly write it to your 31 million followers.”
International human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky added: “Words have consequences. Antisemitism and violence against Jews in America, is already at an all-time high. Although she has since deleted this tweet (in reference to her lawyers), she never ought to have posted it all.”
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